


to have a home

by Wallyallens



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, RipFic, a timecanary reunion after rip leaves, aka short for me, post 2x16, post aruba
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 06:47:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10551870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallyallens/pseuds/Wallyallens
Summary: time canary reunion post-Aruba. Sara see's Rip again six months after he left the Waverider.





	

Sara can’t quite breathe, the moment she sees him again.

His name catches in her throat, burning there for a moment where he hasn’t seen her yet, his eyes fixed on the flames in the distance and the wind tugging at the bottom on his coat, and Rip looks every inch a hero. Something about him is different – he stands a little taller, his keen eyes shine a little brighter, and although he had always looked a bit fairytale to her, he stands like he believes it now. It suits him too well. Down to his bones. Then he turns and notices her, freezing as his eyes land on hers.

Rip Hunter. It had been six months since she had seen him last.

Sara has to swallow thickly before she manages to pull his name out of her lips; they both ignore how her voice cracks. It takes a few steps for him to come into focus again, before Rip is right there, close enough to touch – she doesn’t quite believe it for a fleeting second, snatching out a hand to grab his arm before she has the time to think twice.

Beneath her fingers, Rip is firm. He is warm. He is there, _really there_.

Sara feels her face break out into a smile, as she looks from her hand to his face, disbelieving grin forcing its way onto her burning cheeks as she just looks at him for a moment. If he could just keep standing there, so real, she thought that moment could stretch eternities.

“Sara,” he says. On his lips, her name sounded like something holy. “You’re here.”

“So are you,” she blinks, looking around. “Why are you here?”

“Chasing ghosts. You?”

“Chasing trouble.”

Now it was Rip’s turn to smile. Although it wasn’t easy to tease a smile from him, when one graced his lips and twisted them up in amusement, never cracking wider than that; but small and _earned_ – it meant something. A smile from Rip was a victory in her eyes. She had missed it. Hell – she had just missed _him_.

“That sounds about right,” he said, lips angled in a wry expression. Obviously, he didn’t want to smile at the fact that they were causing havoc, but he couldn’t quite push down the fondness which lit up on his face. The eyes that met her own were so soft that it hurt to meet his gaze, and she had to drop it after a moment. “I – how are you?”

“Same old team, same old timeline,” she said with a wave of her hand. Like looking at the sun, she glanced up at him again until her eyes adjusted, then studied him quietly. Sara pursed her lips in approval, nodding slightly. “You look well, Rip.”

A bashful blush tinges the tips of his ears pink. It’s endearing on him; Rip shifts on his feet and looks down at them, unsure how to respond. Taking another few seconds to fidget with his belt and avoid her eyes, he made a show of shrugging, caught between pleasure at the compliment and a flash of pain at what was said between the lines: that this was the first time in a long time that she had seen him.

Distance was a dull blade in the hand of the cruel bastard that was time. It left jagged edges.

“I’ve been looking for my family,” he replies softly, after a minute. Rip can’t quite meet her eyes anymore, but addresses her lips. “My parents – I mean. They’ve always been this empty space to me. But I went looking for answers – where I came from, who they were – I thought if I could understand my place there, I could . . .”

“Come back?” Sara guessed, biting her lip. She took another step closer to him, ducking under his gaze and angling her head up so he couldn’t avoid her further. “Rip, you don’t have to earn your place on this team. You never did. If this is something that’s important to you, I support you – but you don’t have to do this for us.”

“I want to find them,” he says, completely dodging the point of her words. It was artful, the way Rip skated around the things he didn’t want to talk about. Sara hesitated, but only for a heartbeat. Sometimes the truth wanted to be said aloud.

“You always have a place to come home to, Rip. You always have somewhere to go.”

This time, something changes behind his green eyes. A light shifts, and he nods once, giving her that look again, the one that made her feel ten feet tall. Like she was something more than she was. If only she could see herself the way Rip looked at her, sometimes, Sara thought she might just start believing she was more than the darkness.

“I know,” Rip said eventually. “Thank you, though. For saying it. I – thank you.”

Sara nods back, almost laughing at his British way of stumbling gracefully over showing emotion. She had ached for missing the words he should have said, the past six months. In the silences in conversations, she could hear him perfectly, a ghost in the room. The space where he should have been was too obvious. There was a gap at her side, remaining unfilled, and her eyes skirted to where he was supposed to be; the team all pretended not to notice, but she had turned to ask him for his opinion too many times for them to miss at this point.

They’re saved by an explosion. It rocks the ground beneath them and draws their eyes to something that burns slightly less than the other’s gaze, seeing a building go up in flames in the distance.

“That’s only the second explosion of the mission, would you believe,” Sara said lightly, turning to look at him over her shoulder. Casually, she jerked a thumb towards it, “For old times’ sake?”

Rip barked a single, quick laugh. It escaped him as a breath would, naturally and without thought, before it dawned on him what damage they were doing to the timeline, and then he became comically caught between laughter and the utter despair of someone trying to erase what they had just heard from their mind. In the end, he just sighed dramatically, falling into step beside her without needing to be asked as they ran towards the smell of smoke.

“I can’t believe that I actually missed this,” Rip laughed breathlessly. Sara joined him, and just for a night, the world fell back into place: Sara Lance and Rip Hunter, fighting for all of time side by side, just as it should be.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah I know this is v v short for me, but I am sad and they're in love and there will probably be a follow-up ft rip's Cool Dad booster.


End file.
